I have a confession to make...
Ken and I squeeze in as many Family Retreats as our summer schedule permits... and we do so, not only because of the families, but for us. I savor “talking shop” with other women in wheelchairs... I’ve watched Ken sit at a picnic table and hobnob with other guys who are married to women in wheelchairs... Ken and I are recharged by the powerful examples of other people with disabilities who, by God’s grace, are making it.
I’m thinking of Joanne whom I met at the Oakwood Inn Family Retreat in Indiana. A few weeks after retreat, Joanne thought I might not remember her when she wrote, “I’m sure you won’t recall who I am from the hundreds of families you met this summer. I am a single mother with two boys, one of whom is severely disabled. I was afraid about coming to retreat, but praise the Lord I’m glad I did not back out.
“The women I met prayed with me about turning over my anger and bitterness and allowing God to be my strength.” And then she writes, “I would demonstrate such ugly behavior every time my ex-husband would pick up our healthy child for visits, leaving me to care for our child with disabilities by myself. I had been daring the Lord to rebuke me. But now, since retreat, I have started praying for my husband and his relationship with our son as he drives away. The pain is still real, but my reaction to it pushes me into the arms of a loving Father instead of into a two-day depression. Thanks so much for doing ‘Tada Time’ at the retreat with your husband — the Lord used Ken’s honesty to help me be honest with myself. Hearing Ken express his love for you, Joni, yet his struggles with your disability gives me freedom to admit that I don’t always feel ‘blessed’ because of my son’s disability.”
Do you see why I remember Joanne? It’s all about example. Family Retreats are like an electric socket into which Ken and I can plug in for five days and go away supercharged... they are like pulling up to a pump and re-fueling on high octane grace. So you see, Joni and Friends retreats aren’t just for others; “experts” like Ken and me need them, too. This is why my husband and I hold fast to Galatians 6:2-3, “Share each other's troubles and problems... If anyone thinks he is too great to stoop to this, he is fooling himself. He is really a nobody.”
We’re not fooling ourselves. We will “stoop” any day, any time to bask in the sunlit example of single moms like Joanne... people who come to Family Retreat.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends